136 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS, 



Apeil 30, 1910. 



EDITORIAL NOTICES. 



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 Barbados. 



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Agricultural llnuii 



Vol. IX. SATUEDAY. APRIL 30, 1910. No. 209. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Contents of Present Issue. 



The editorial of this issue presents the former of 

 two articles on the functions of agricultural experiment 

 stations. 



An account of progress that has been made in the 

 matter of the utilization of seedling sugar-canes in 

 Louisiana is given on p.age 131. 



The geographical distribution of the cocoa-nut 

 palm is dealt with on page 132. 



The sources from which the rubber supply of the 

 world is derived are given on page 133. This is 

 a matter of special interest, in view of the attention 

 that is being paid to this product at the present time. 



An article on page 135 gives useful information 

 on the use of the plough. 



The control of insect pests by means of their 

 natural parasites is a subject that is gaining a constantly 

 increasing interest, especially as it is now well demon- 

 strated that this forms a practical means of reducing 

 the numbers of such pests, in several instances. Work 

 that has been done in Hawaii, in this connexion, in 

 relation to sugar-cane is reviewed on page 138. 



The Fifth Part of the series of articles that are 

 being given under the head of Fungus Notes, entitled 

 The Chief Groups of Fungi, appears on page 142. The 

 figures are reproduced after Tulasne. 



Index and Title Page. 



The inde.\ ;ind title page of Vol. VIII of the Agri- 

 cidtural News are published as a supplement to the 

 present issue. This will give the opportunity for the 

 numbers of that volume to be bound together. 



Rainfall in St. Lucia. 



The rainfall returns of St. Lucia, for 1909, show 

 that there were four stations which received a precipita- 

 tion of more than 100 inches. These were: Uplyme 

 12414; Border 10812: Soucis, 1005.5; and Park, 100-01 

 inches. The stations at which a rainfall of near, or less 

 than, 70 inches was obtained were Riviere Doree 

 (5913), Black Bay (61-79), Retraite (7057), and Inver- 

 goil (70 85): in the case of the last station, however, 

 returns were only made for ten months and nine days, 

 that is from February 20. The maximum rainfall in 

 one day was registered at Soucis, namely 4\S2 inches on 

 October 18; it was here, also, that the number of days 

 on which rain fell was largest, namely 323. The small- 

 est number of days on which rain was received, namely 

 118, was at Black Bay. The average annual rainfall at 

 Castries for twenty years is 91 09 inches. 



-^.^^»— fr-^ ■ 



A Simple Method of Electroplating. 



An account of a method of elecroplating which 

 seems worthy of notice by reason of its simplicity is 

 given in a paper by the inventor of the process, pub- 

 lished in the Joiirudl of the Royal Society of Arts, 

 for February 4, 1910. The efforts that resulted in the 

 making of the invention arose from a desire to devise 

 a process by which any person of ordinary intelligence 

 could, without any technical training, produce an elec- 

 trolytic deposit. The chief difficulties in the way of 

 attaining this object were that it was absolutely 

 necessary that no heating or baths, or any poisonous 

 ingredients, such as cyanide of potassium or mercury 

 should be employed, and that there should not 

 be a multiplicity of powders or liquids used. The 

 method consists in the utilization of a mixture of pow- 

 dered substances, to which its inventor has given the 

 trade name of 'Galvanit', by the aid of which a given 

 metal is deposited by applying the powder by means of 

 a rag or brush, and rubbing the object to be coated, in 

 the presence of moisture. No preliminary treatment 

 of the surface on which the deposit is placed is 

 required, other than making it reasonably clean and 

 bright; the rubbing with a rag or brush cleanses and 

 polishes the newly deposited surface, while the deposition 

 of the metal is taking place. In the case of a par- 

 ticular metal, the corresponding powder has to be used; 

 the process is not confined to simple metals, but many 

 alloys, such as brass and gun metal, can be used for 

 coating suitable surfaces, by its aid. In addition, the 

 powders can be used for depositing metals on alumin- 

 ium — an important matter when the difficulty of plat- 

 ing aluminium in the ordinary way is considered. 



The Galvanit tin powder is stated to be of special 

 use for renewing the tinned surface of cooking utensils; 

 any domestic servant is capable of accomplishing this 



